The kids are alright
by severinas.96
Summary: Balthazar is tired of Lucifer teasing him, Lucifer is tired of looking after his little brother and the playground seems a good place to deposit annoying little siblings. Luckily there are other brothers tired of dealing with their younger ones. Young Dean, Sam, Cas, Lucifer, Balthazar, Gabriel and others.
1. Playground it is

_This was something that wrote itself out of the blue. It doesn't follow the story of the show and it couldn't even happen in theory. But it's not completely AU either. :) Hope you enjoy nonetheless, and please tell me what you thought. _

_Disclaimer: As usual, nothing belongs to me. The characters and everything surrounding belongs to The CW. _

_For better understanding, in this story the ages of the characters are:_

_Raphael 36_  
_Anna 28_  
_Michael 24_  
_Lucifer 21_  
_Gabriel 17_  
_Balthazar 9_  
_Castiel 8_  
_Dean 8_  
_Sam 4_

_On with the show!_

**SPNSPNSPN**

Balthazar was sitting on the floor and pouting.

"Where did he go?" he asked no one in particular. Staring at his hands he slowly got up and turned around to Lucifer.

The older one smirked a little and looked down at his brother. It was too much fun to tease him. "Maybe you dropped him?"

Balthy's eyes grew wide and he quickly looked to the floor under his hands. His little blond head reappeared and his eyes went back to Lucifer. "No… It's not there anymore, Lucy."

Lucifer's eyes narrowed and he went down on his knees to be at eye level with Balthazar. "Don't ever call me that again" he growled. "Or I'll never tell you where teddy is."

Balthazar's eyes widened and he skidded closer to Lucifer. "You know where teddy is?" He lifted his hands and put them on Lucifer's shoulders, as he had seen Michael do with Lucifer. "Cuz he is lost, you know? He needs my help! I gotta rescue him!"

Lucifer rolled his eyes and stood up again. "I'll take you to him, if you promise to never call me Lucy again."

Balthazar stood up too, his eyes now shining with anticipation. Finally he was old enough to save someone; then he could be a hero, just as his older brothers were. They always kept saying that he was too young to go with them, that he needed to wait some more years. Now he would show them how he could be a hero too, he just had to save his teddy.

Lucifer stretched out his hand for Balthazar to take it, but he jumped back a little.

"No, I'm old enough to fly on my own now!" He crossed his arms in front of his chest and tried to look confident. "Yesterday I flew from my bed to the bathroom. I can do this, I'm old enough now!" He said, while sticking his chest out a little.

Lucifer in turn stepped back and crossed his arms. "So? You are?"

Balthazar raised his chin and stared into his brothers eye. "Yes I am!"

The older one smiled a crooked smile and let out a little laugh. "Prove it." He said. "Fly from here to that tree over there. Prove me that you can do this, and then we'll see. "

Balthazar squirmed his eyes and looked across the park. "But I can barely see the tree" He looked up to Lucifer, but as he saw the winning look on his face he quickly looked back at the tree. "Seriously? I can do that in my sleep!"

He fixed his eyes on the distant tree, concentrating everything he had on the task before him.

Lucifer stood beside him, a confident look on his face. He knew that he was never going to do it. With a loud whoosh Balthazar disappeared from beside him and reappeared mere meters from the tree. He stumbled and staggered, trying to get his balance back.

Lucifer himself flew to his side, but before he could catch and prevent his falling, him Anna appeared, grabbing Balthazar in her arms. He looked exhausted and snuggled himself closer into the embrace.

Anna's fuming eyes met Lucifer's, and before he could even open his mouth she said: "Don't. Don't apologize. Just don't do it again. You know he is not strong enough yet."

"I could have done it…" Balthazar's protest was muffled by Anna's shoulder.

Anna straightened her arms so that she could look Balthazar in the eye. "I know sweetie, I know. But you had class today and you already used you energy. And your brother should have considered that." Her gaze went back to Lucifer, who looked down with an apologetic look. "Well, Balthy, you wanna go to the playground? I hear Gabriel is there with Cas."

Balthazar looked hesitantly up to his sister. "But I need to prove that I am a hero. Teddy is in danger and we were going to rescue him." His eyes went from Anna to Lucifer and back. "I don't wanna go without teddy…"

Anna stood up and turned to Lucifer. She just held out her hand and looked at him. He grabbed something from behind his back and knelt down to Balthazar. "Here you go, we saved him together, didn't we?"

Balthazar looked up to him with a wide grin and took his teddy from Lucifer. "Yes, yes we did."

Gabriel was sitting on a bench, bored out of his mind. Again it was up to him to look out for his little annoying brother. Michael and Anna had joined Raphael a few years ago and were now gone for most of the time, fighting some war. They had taken over control of heaven just some years ago after their dad left. Recently Lucifer was going with them too. Why couldn't he go too? Instead they left him to watch over his little brother. He was old and strong enough to fight with them. They just didn't seem to believe, that…

"Are you even listening to me?!"

The small hand on his shoulder shook him out of his thoughts. His gaze followed the tiny arm back to the familiar beige trench coat. Why on earth did the kid love it so much?

"Cas, 'course I was listening! What do you think big brothers are there for?" He turned to his little brother and smiled at his earnest face. Castiel was supposed to be 8 years old! And still sometimes he behaved like a grown up.

Crossing his arms, Cas continued to explain his theory. "I don't think dad is on vacation. I mean, he has been gone for 4 years now! I think it's a test. He wants to see how you would do without him. And then, soon, he will come back and tell you the lesson you learned. Well, that's his plan. But I am going to find him. I'm close, you know? Just yesterday I found…"

"Casi-boy" Balthazar sighed and looked at the playing children. "You know dad wouldn't want you ruining his plan. Of course you could find him, but just go and play for a little, would ya?"

Cas looked at him with betrayed eyes. "Fine" he said and marched off.

Then he would find his dad on his own. He seemed to be the only one who really cared. The others just laughed at him whenever he mentioned it. All but Anna. Although she didn't do much to help him either, at least she didn't tell him to stop looking.

Castiel strode around the playground. He wasn't in the mood to just play around. He wanted to go off and continue looking for his father. He would have flown away, but Gabriel wasn't so stupid. He had put bounds on the little park, so that Cas couldn't get out. Sighing he sat down on the ground beside the slide.

"Sammy, wait for me!"

Cas looked up and saw a little child coming down the slide and just as he was about to hit the ground at the end, he stretched out his hand and stopped him.

Another boy came running from the other side of the slide and stopped in front of Castiel and the other boy.

"Sammy, I told you to wait!"

The little boy, whose name apparently was Sammy, just giggled at the boy and started to stand up from the slide and run on his short legs again to the stairs leading up to the slide.

The older boy shot Cas an apologetic look and ran behind the other one.

Castiel watched them, as the older one helped Sammy up the stairs and guided him to the slide. He looked down to Cas, who nodded in agreement to catch the younger one again, pushed the younger one down the slide and came down behind him. Castiel extended his hand again, preventing the younger one from falling off the slide.

As they arrived down, he took Sammy's hand and stood up, shooting Cas a thankful look.

"I'm Dean" he said, while extending his hand.

Cas shook it and nodded seriously. "I'm Castiel"

Dean lifted Sam to his arms. "Then thank you, Cas. You wanna play with us? This is Sammy, by the way."

Cas tilted his head. It wouldn't be too bad if he spend some time with them, wouldn't it? His dad could wait a bit more, he would find him soon enough.

"Sure, why not?"

And together with Dean and Sammy he went off to build the biggest sand castle the world had ever seen.

**SPNSPNSPN**

_Hope you enjoyed! More to come, but meanwhile tell me what you thought of it. It would mean the world to me. Thanks for reading!_


	2. Villain and cop

So, here is part two! :) Hope you enjoy

**SPNSPNSPN**

As soon as Lucifer and Balthazar arrived at the playground, Lucifer went off to Gabriel, who seemed relieved to see some other faces. Finally someone who wouldn't try to talk him into playing something.

"Hey there little bro" Lucifer greeted his brother, who only grimaced. "How ya doing?"

"Stay some time and you'll know…" Gabriel didn't even bother to look, he knew that his brother was laughing at him.

They both watched as Balthazar approached his younger brother.

"What are you doing?"

Castiel looked up from his sand castle. It wasn't turning out as planned, and Dean and Sam had already given up on it. But Cas was still trying to keep the sand on top of the little mountain that represented the majestic castle he had in mind.

"What does it look like" he grunted, offended that the sand didn't do what he wanted it to do.

"Well…" Balthazar tilted his head like an art critic. "It looks like a dog poop"

Castiel turned to Balthazar, insulted. He tried to defend himself. "I only need water, that's all."

Balthazar grinned and when Cas turned back to his castle it was overflowing with water.

"Balthazar!" He jumped up and shoved his brother. "That's not fair!"

"Sorry lil bro" Balthazar jumped back, avoiding his brothers attempt to hit him again. As Castiel made a step closer, he turned around and started running.

Castiel chased Balthazar around the playground, but none of them seemed to get an advantage, until Cas flew right in front of Balthazar.

Balthazar stopped in his tracks and stared at Castiel. "That's not fair!"

But Cas just smiled.

Lucifer and Gabriel couldn't stop laughing. They had seen everything and now they couldn't stop themselves.

"He kind of earned it" said Gabriel. "He screwed with Cas using his powers, so Cas had all the right to do the same to him."

Lucifer watched Cas with a proud look. "Come on, get him Casi!"

Dean had a concentrated look on his face, and as Cas and Balthazar ran the second time past him, he stopped them.

"I have an idea what we can play next. Do you know the game villain and cop?"

As Anna appeared at the playground to call everyone for dinner, an unexpected scene developed in front of her. Dean and Castiel had recruited other children on the playground and together they had organized a huge game of villain and cop.

Gabriel was playing referee while the game developed around him. Balthazar was positioned near the swings, where they had marked a prison with some shoes.

Inside it were some villains, trying desperately for their team villains to clap their hand in order to get them out of the prison. Balthazar's job was to prevent just that. And he was good at it. Many villains were trying desperately to pass him, but they barely ever succeeded.

The cops on the other hand had developed a clever tactic. Dean had teamed up with Castiel; one of them chased a villain while the other was hiding, ready to jump out when the villain came close enough for him to catch him. In a few minutes they had already caught half of the villains, which were now all in prison.

Lucifer was standing on top of the slide, trying to help the villains to escape prison and run away from the cops. He was having little success though, Dean and Cas were just too good.

And Sam was wobbling around, nearly falling every time someone ran past him. But he was laughing and trying to catch anyone who came near him, cop and villain both.

Suddenly Cas spotted Anna standing on the playground.

"Anna!" He shouted to get her attention, while already starting to run towards her. "Anna, can Dean come with us? Dinner is always so boring and…" He turned around to wave at Dean, while suddenly…

Bum!

Cas collided front on with one of the poles holding the slide.

The second his body touched the ground, Anna and Gabriel were by his side. At first, Castiel only stared in surprise at Anna, who was suddenly much closer than seconds before, and strangely towering over him.

Then, Anna saw the recognition in his face and expected him to start crying. But he didn't.

Cas' gaze fixed on the ground beside him, and amazed he extended one hand towards a little bee sitting on the grass.

"I don't want to play anymore… I want to watch the bees."

Lucifer, who had jumped down the slide and was now standing beside Gabriel, started to laugh. Gabriel and Anna just stared at him, eyebrows raised.

"Cas, little bro, you've gone crazy!"

Castiel's gaze wandered from the bee to his brother. "No Lucifer, I am not crazy. The bees are interesting. Did you know that they dance to communicate between themselves?"

Gabriel huffed a laugh, and earned a hard glance from Anna.

"What?" He tried to defend himself. "He is funny."

Anna just shook her head.

"Cas, you alright? Does your head hurt?"

But Castiel continued to stare at the bee.  
"Do you think the bees realise how scared some people are of them? I bet they would laugh that someone so many times bigger than they could be scared by them. They would think we're crazy, don't you think Anna?"

Now Anna had to laugh too. She extended her hand towards Castiel and as he took it pulled him up.

"Come on, you bee-watcher. Let's go get something to eat."

Castiel looked from Anna to Gabriel and then to Dean, who was standing outside the little group, watching Cas carefully while holding Sam's hand.

"But Dean can come with us, right?"

"Yes, of course he can."

Dean grabbed Sammy's hand tighter, making sure that Sam was included in the invitation. He wouldn't go anywhere without his little brother.

Gabriel got the cue and quickly reassured Dean.  
"Course Sammy is invited too, Dean-o. We'll have food enough for both of you."

Anna couldn't help but smile. Castiel had always been the heart of the family. He had always been the one to unite all of them, even when they were fighting. Although how estranged they might seem and regardless of everything that had happened to her family, they still loved each other. They didn't show it often, but deep down they did. And that was the only thing that counted.

And so Dean trailed behind Cas, with Sammy clutched to his hand, eying the weird family. John would probably be pissed at him for not coming home on time, but right now he didn't care. He had found new friends and he wasn't going to deny this experience to Sammy. They had earned themselves a moment of happiness after all.

**SPNSPNSPN**

As an explanation if you dont know the game villain and cop:

The cops, who are in pursuit of villains (the team being chased), arrest the villains by tagging and put them in jail. Villains can stage a jailbreak by tagging one of the prisoners without getting tagged themselves. The game ends if all the robbers are in jail. (Taken from Wikipedia)

**SPNSPNSPN**

Hope you enjoyed this as much as I did writing it ;) Please take a sec to leave me a review, it would mean the world to me :)


	3. An unusual family

So I´m back with another chapter ;) A bit background story and some explanation done in this one. This story wasn´t planned to even go this far, but I´m glad it did. I am really enjoying writing this, and I hope you enjoy reading it too :) As always, leave a review, it would make my day

**SPNSPNSPN**

Dean couldn't stop staring at Lucifer. He was sitting at a huge table, surrounded by people he barely knew. They were talking in a chaos, all at the same time; somehow they still seemed to understand each other. Sam was sitting beside him, he didn't care much about the other people. He was just happy that he had some healthy food. Sam had never liked the junk food John brought them.  
But Dean couldn't help but think where exactly he had landed. And landed was just the right word. Because he had flown here.

His eyes fell upon Cas, his new friend. He didn't find it weird at all that they had just zapped here. But Dean did. One moment Cas had asked him to join them with dinner, and the next thing he knew was that he was standing in a dining room, clinging to Sammy and some other arm. As he had looked up he had looked into the face of one of Cas' brothers, Lucifer he thought was his name.

Sam hadn't hesitated a second but had run away with Balthazar to one of the chairs on the table.

Dean had followed him and sat beside him. Then he had looked back to Cas, wanting to share his wonder with him.

But Cas hadn't seemed faced at all, he had been talking to another man, much older than any of his brothers he had seen until now. As he had looked towards Dean, he had just smiled, as if it was the most normal thing to just suddenly appear in the middle of a room.

But for Dean it wasn't. And on top of that he was sure to have seen something white coming out of the guys back right before the playground had disappeared. Something white and fluffy. Those guys were weirder with each minute. And so now he was staring at everyone in the room, trying to figure out just why something so abnormal was normal to them.

He already was old enough that Dad had told him about monsters and stuff, but he hadn't seen any yet. Did they normally look that nice? Did they normally invite other people into their house to have dinner with them? Dean didn't think so. But who knew? He would honour his dad's training and keep a watchful eye.

But his mission was soon forgotten as Gabriel passed him the bowl with spaghettis. He took in the smell of the first real food he had seen in some time and couldn't resist. With a huge grin he took the bowl, put some of the spaghetti on Sam's plate, took some for himself and passed it onto Cas.

Taking the first bite, he couldn't help the "Hmmm" escaping his mouth. Gabriel next to him chuckled, and Anna in front of him looked at him in a weird way that strangely reminded him of his mother. Blushing he looked down to his plate and continued eating.

Cas next to him was immersed in a conversation with the older brother from before, which he kept calling Michael. Something about them not being able to be hurt by guns. How else would you kill someone if not with a gun? Dean didn't get what they were talking about, so he didn't bother trying to listen further. Instead he looked around him and observed the other people of the family.

Anna was apparently the only girl. But she didn't seem to mind. She got along well with everyone and teased and picked at her brothers.

Despite Castiel being technically the youngest one, Balthazar seemed to be the baby of the family. He was nurtured and cared for by diverse members of the family, even Lucifer tried to be nice to him. But instead of lighting up his mood he just made him angry with his random comments and jokes.

The oldest of the brothers, Dean thought he had heard Cas call him Raphael, was in a heated discussion with Gabriel.

"…you know that we're not going to start something soon, Gabe. We don't need you at the moment, you're of better use up here than down there were you could only get yourself killed!" Raphael seemed to try hard not to start yelling, but he was quite close.

"I just want to help! I know I can, I know I won't get killed. Please, let me help. I'm old enough now, you know I'm ready."

Gabriel seemed desperate, although Dean didn't quite get what they were talking about.

"I know that, Gabe, really. I've seen how good you are, but exactly that's why we have to keep your existence secret from the demons. You'll be of greater use then."

Raphael's tone indicated that this was the end of the conversation. But Gabriel didn't give up that easily.

"But maybe I could help you with something more secret, then. There don't have to be any witnesses. We can just kill them all!"

Raphael silenced Gabriel with a wave of his hand. He looked over to Dean, who quickly turned to face his plate again, his body tensing.

"The little hunter besides you thinks were some sort of demon-serial-killers, Gabe." Raphael said, his voice now sounding as if it all were a joke.

Dean looked up. He hadn't expected such a reaction from Raphael. He had expected scolding, yelling, but not that.

"I…" he stuttered.

But Raphael just laughed.

"It's okay, Dean. But were not the bad guys, you know that, right?"

Dean couldn't think of anything to say. Would he offended him if he said no? Would he get kicked out? He didn't want to get kicked out, he wanted to stay a little longer, allow both Sam and himself this little pause from the hunters life they were living.

He looked up to Raphael, scared.

But again Raphael just laughed, winked at him and turned around to help Lucifer tease Balthazar.

Suddenly there was a pull at his sleeve from his other side. He looked down and saw his brother trying to get his attention.

As he leaned closer to Sam's mouth, Sam whispered, still loud enough for the others to hear:

"Dean, can I go with Balthazar? He wants to show me his room."

Dean looked up to Balthazar, who tried to make an earnest face. He squinted his eyes, not sure if he could trust his brother to Balthazar.

But Anna had seen Dean's hesitation and came over to stand behind Balthazar.  
"I'll keep an eye on those two, Dean. Don't worry, they won't run away on my watch."

Dean looked from Sammy up to her, and as he saw her nod he gave Sammy a little push.  
"Go on then and have fun. But behave, ok?"

Sam threw his short hands around his brother, smiled up at him and peeped: "Thanks Dean."

He went of running towards Balthazar and Anna, and the three of them climbed the stairs to the second floor.

As Dean turned around again he saw Cas looking at him. He shot him a questioning look. Suddenly he had a cup of pudding in his hand. Dean stared at it. It had materialised out of nothing. It had just appeared.  
Cas looked at him, questioning.

"Do you want pudding?"

Dean couldn't help to laugh out. These people were getting weirder and weirder. But he accepted the desert, it smelled really good.

Another of the cups materialised in front of Cas, and they both started eating without saying anything.

After both had finished they leaned back in their seats, stuffed full with food. He look over to Cas.

"Do you want to go outside, Dean?"

Dean nodded, and with a wush the scenery around him changed suddenly again.

The two boys were lying on the grass beside each other. Blue and green eyes were staring up to the sky, making out thousands of wonderful cloud pictures.

"A teddy bear!"

"A monkey!"

"A fish!"

"A slide!"

But Cas didn't agree with that.

"Where do you see a slide, Dean? I can't see anything that would be considered a slide."

But Dean ließ sich nicht von seiner Sache abbringen.

„No no, look over there! Beneath what you called a fish but that is rather a whale. There, don't you see it?"

Cas stared intently and squirmed his eyes. Finally he conceded.

"Yes, I see why you would see it as a slide, Dean. But it isn't. It's more like a ladder I would say."

Dean turned to face Cas.

"Imagination, Cas, imagination."

Castiel just looked Dean in the eye and then continued to stare at the clouds.

Suddenly Dean cried out.

"Look Cas! There! This time you can't deny it! These are definitely angel wings!"

Cas squinted a glance at Dean, then looked back at the sky.

"Yes Dean, you're probably right." His voice sounded neutral, nearly sad.

Dean remained silent, his brow furrowed in deep thought. Finally he spoke up.

"Cas, why do you think… why… why can you do things that I can't? Why could your brothers fly? Why could you fly?"

Cas didn't react but just kept his eyes trained on the clouds.

Dean rambled on.

"You know, I don't think it's fair that you can do all those things. Like zap yourself from place to place and move things and create things and… Why are you different? I want to be like you! Why can't I be like you?" At that last phrase his voice broke and he looked down, trying to hide his tears.

Finally Cas looked up.

"No Dean. It is not like that. For a long time I didn't even know that there were different types of people. I thought that flying and everything that I do was normal. But then Anna took me down to the earth. And I met you, humans."

Cas paused, looking longingly at Dean. Dean didn't notice and looked hurt.

"Yeah, and you noticed how much better you were. Thanks Cas, that really helped me."

He made to stand up but Cas held him by his arm.

"No! No, Dean, not at all! Please, listen to me." Dean sat down again but Cas didn't let go of Dean's arm. "I was so jealous of you when I met you. I ran away from Anna, hiding on earth, trying to be a human. But everywhere they noticed that I was different. They didn't accept me, nowhere. I wanted to be like you, Dean, so bad. But I couldn't. Because I'm different. Because I'm not human. You are so lucky to be human, Dean. So lucky. I would change with you every second. I want to be human, I want to feel love, feel hate, feel anger, feel disappointment, feel shame, feel frustration, feel boredom. I can't feel all those things, Dean. Yes, I can fly and yes, I can do things that you can't. But they are not worth it. They just aren't."

Finally, Cas let go of Deans arm and his hand slumped down to the ground. His head was hanging between his shoulder blades, eyes fixed on the grass.

Dean was staring at Cas open mouthed. He swallowed once, started to say something and closed his mouth again. His eyes wandered to the trees behind their back, trying to find something to say. As his eyes returned to Cas, he saw the boy looking at him nervously.

Finally Dean made to say something.

"Really?"

Cas mouth twitched in a small chuckle despite his efforts to supress it.

"Really Dean."

Dean laid back again, furrowing his brow in deep thought.

"Cas, you know what? You're right. That cloud definitely is a ladder."

**SPNSPNSPNS**

Hope you enjoyed! Leave a like if you did ;)

More will come, but as it is november (NaNoWriMo), it will probably take a while. I don´t think it will take me until december, but I won´t update next weekend either. Somewhere in between ;)


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